These games have survived over 40 yrs. Will they make 40 more?

vintagegamer

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40 years from now will be 2065. Knowing that the components that many of of these games have made it this far, do you think Ms. Pac, Joust, and Robotron will all be alive and well in 2065? RT has a ways to go to get to 2084. 😀
 
I think a lot of vintage electronics will wind up going the FPGA route as original components become impossible to find. As always, CRTs will be the limiting factor.
 
I'm not positive the planet will make it another 40 years. Perhaps AI makes Robotron our reality.
Making it through a single day of a real Robotron world seems almost impossible.

I hope to make it another 40 years so yes at least my games will survive (provided I do).
 
My usual speech when this topic comes up, but it can't be said enough:

Some will survive, most won't. That's why it's CRUCIAL to record as much info about them while we can because the ability to reproduce them will be the only way for them to survive long term, and manufacturing technology will make that easier and easier. ROMs, schematics, manuals, scans of artwork, machinist drawings of controls and metal parts, info on custom ICs, CNC files to repro the cabs, even scans of PCB foil patterns, every bit we can while we still can. Quantum is a great example of what I'm talking about, if one wants there is enough info available they can build one entirely from scratch that's more or less identical to an original, and as long as all that info survives so will the game.
 
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This-
My usual speech when this topic comes up, but it can't be said enough:

Some will survive, most won't. That's why it's CRUCIAL to record as much info about them while we can because the ability to reproduce them will be the only way for them to survive long term, and manufacturing technology will make that easier and easier. ROMs, schematics, manuals, scans of artwork, machinist drawings of controls and metal parts, info on custom ICs, CNC files to repro the cabs, even scans of PCB foil patterns, every bit we can while we still can. Quantum is a great example of what I'm talking about, if one wants there is enough info available they can build one entirely from scratch that's more or less identical to an original, and as long as all that info survives so will the game.

And this!
I have enough old tubes at this point to scratch build my entire own arcade.

Oh, wait... :LOL:
Like others have said, without CRTs, all this knowledge and tools of keeping everything else fixed and reproduced won't preserve 80s arcade machines.
 
I'm not too worried about CRTs. Seem to be plenty. At my existing consumption rate, I have enough in storage for 100 years.

I'd definitely go to MAME before FPGA. At least MAME knows what it is. It doesn't "pretend" t be something it isn't. It's fake, it knows it, it's OK with itself.
 
I'm not too worried about CRTs. Seem to be plenty. At my existing consumption rate, I have enough in storage for 100 years.

I'd definitely go to MAME before FPGA. At least MAME knows what it is. It doesn't "pretend" t be something it isn't. It's fake, it knows it, it's OK with itself.
I was mind=blown when I read that the real purpose of MAME was to fix real games. I entered a whole other dimension when I started using that to my advantage.

I discovered MAME 25 years ago when my grandparents were retired and out of the business. they made the silly decision to go back at age 75 instead of just selling their land. thus is how I got stuck in this stupid occupation. I won't exist anymore in 40 years, though I do worry about the aftermath in the next 10 years. by then I hope to be away from it all and well, back to MAME.
 
I was mind=blown when I read that the real purpose of MAME was to fix real games. I entered a whole other dimension when I started using that to my advantage.

I discovered MAME 25 years ago when my grandparents were retired and out of the business. they made the silly decision to go back at age 75 instead of just selling their land. thus is how I got stuck in this stupid occupation. I won't exist anymore in 40 years, though I do worry about the aftermath in the next 10 years. by then I hope to be away from it all and well, back to MAME.

I love MAME. It's a game changer. It lets me play games I'll never own, don't have room for, etc.

I like how people actually make "MAME" cabinets that are clearly MAME. MAME marquees, etc.

I don't care for people putting non-original parts (ie, FPGA) in machines and pretending they are are "real". Of course, minor parts like power cords, etc don't really matter...but the main PCB...that matters...to me anyway.
 
CRTs aren't the end-all of arcade preservation, sure ideally you'd want them but there are other options if they're not available, and we don't know what's coming in the future which will do the same job or even tech to make reproductions. In theory maybe someone could come up with a way to make them with a different tech of guns which don't require such toxic chemicals, vacuum or even the tube to be made of actual glass? That's only speculation of course but we're all surrounded by tech that seemed outlandish only 10-20 years ago. Again that's why documentation is so important, in another 20 years having a complete game made from scratch based on just that info may not be difficult or even that expensive, but you can't reproduce anything when you know nothing about it.
 
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Well, to be honest with M.A.M.E. using the scan lines option and with a newer 2020+ LED monitor with almost no ghosting and no input lag, the games look pretty good. But all I'm saying is if I therefore put that type of monitor that enables some sort of scan lines within a little interface board in an old arcade machine then is it really important to also have the original PCB and power supply? Probably not at that point.
 
I see no reason why my games won't be working fine in 40 years from now unless I am dead... which is more than likely being that I would be 93 years old in 40 years...
 
if I therefore put that type of monitor that enables some sort of scan lines within a little interface board in an old arcade machine then is it really important to also have the original PCB and power supply? Probably not at that point.

Totally up to the owner...for me, hell yes, it's important to have the original PCB. Others feel differently.
 
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Were due for a solar "event". Will the electronics, wiring, CRTs and cabinets survive this event?

I agree with Tornadoboy
saying we need to document as much as possible. Ideally printed and carved in stone somehow.

When electricity is re-discovered unknown years into the future; is there enough surviving documentation for our offspring to bring back Pong, Space Invaders and PAC-MAN?
 
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